Kimsooja Returns to Toronto with 'Dimensions of a Needle' at MOCA

Kimsooja, the Korean artist known for her meditative installations, returns to Toronto with the exhibition 'Kimsooja: Dimensions of a Needle' at the Museum of Contemporary Art Toronto (MOCA). This survey of works from the past two decades showcases her explorations in video performance, architectural installation, and ceramics, all centered on the needle as a metaphor for folding, memory, and displacement. The exhibition occupies MOCA's first and third floors, beginning with the site-specific installation 'To Breathe—Mokum' (2025–26), which intentionally recalls her seminal 1990s work 'A Laundry Field/Sewing into Walking, Looking into Sewing.' That earlier piece, her first North American solo exhibition, was held at Oakville Galleries, a contemporary art museum about 22 miles west of Toronto, where she painted the walls black and hung colorful Korean bedcovers from clotheslines, creating alleyways for viewers to walk through. Curator Marnie Fleming described the effect as a 'swirling energy' from overhead fans animating the bedcovers, making visible their intimate connection to women's lives and labor. Kimsooja's philosophy of 'non-doing' and 'non-making' underpins the current exhibition, which reflects her evolution from those early installations to a more immaterial practice. The return to Toronto marks a full-circle moment for the artist, who has since participated in numerous international exhibitions, biennials, and commissions.